Friday, August 05, 2005

Arsenal contract policy corrosive

French international Robert Pires has been made a three year contract offer from Turkish side Galatasaray.

Arsenal has made an offer that only extends for a single year. I think that’s way too short for a useful and committed player. Pires has stated that he’s prepared to quit Arsenal. At the moment he has until the end of the month to decide.

The Highbury policy of single year contracts is a corrosive force in the same way that team orders are in Formula One. Ferrari driver Rubens Barichello is leaving the team; the Brazilian is tired of being Michael Schumacher’s henchman.

Rather than motivate the players it deters them from staying at the club because single season deals are not too interesting. You can bet every player at Arsenal knows they could face the same situation down the road.

Arsenal don’t seem to mind letting older players like Dennis Bergkamp play on and Pires has at least 2 good seasons left, not withstanding the central midfield experiment.

If as you say Pires has 2 good years in him then a 1 year extention added to the existing year on his contract would appear to be about right, or are you advocating a two year extention taking Pires contract up to the age of 35 on his current and not inconsiderable salary. Will he still be motivated and physically able to offer value for money in 2 years time? Considering the effort and expense Wenger has gone to in promoting the AFC youth policy restricting the length of contracts to players over the age of thirty would seem to be not only logical from a financial standpoint but also from the point of view of creating oppertunities for young talent to breakthrough into the first team.

Look, the policy is sound. Imagine a team like Leeds United giving huge contracts to older players and finding them rapidly decline? Didn't we all think Edgar Davids was great two years ago, for example? Look who he just signed for!

Why would we break the policy for Pires? This just in - it works great for the player! If he has a great year, he can get a huge contract anywhere he wants next close season. If he does not have a great year, he still gets paid well, and can always leave then. Turkish teams (see Fenerbahce) have a habit of giving big contracts to players whose talents decay in that league.

If Pires thinks Turkey will help his French chances, he's loon. He'll stay. And as a final 'ace in the hole', note that DB10 does not appear to mind the one-year plan, and has done quite well with it!

wenger is also saying: be a professional -- you get paid for your contributions, not on your laurels. if you want to play for arsenal then prove it on the pitch. Bye Wiltord, bye Edu, bye Vieira. if not, then younger hungrier lads will come along whose salaries are less of a burden on a club whose stadium holds 35000. As other comments have said, who wants fat cats? This will be Manure's problem this year (if it hasn't been for several seasons now) and chelsea's in a year or two. It all may be a bit harsh on paper, but we are not talking about company employees of 30 years or anything. And whether it demotivates younger players I am not so sure. Some, maybe. But to be honest young men do not think too awful much about their future anyway. just look how many join the US military.

I suspect both this policy and the strict wage scale will change when the club moves to Ashburton Grove. I think where the club is short-sighted though is in that in signing him to a two-year extension, it would increase his value, whatever his form is this season. Say he has a season similar to last, scoring a lot of goals, but not creating or defending. Wenger may look at this as a sign he would never again be a creative force, and choose to sell him. With two years left on the contract, he could sell him for more than with only a single season remaining. The only players I know of that Wenger has done this with are Vieira and Merson. It is usually a matter of ability and loyalty.

If Pires signs a 3-yr contract with the Turks and gets permanently injured, he gets paid.

Year-to-year doesn't really suit older pros, although I do see AW's point; having said that, Pires knocks in the goals and is worth two years in my book, but I think he already has one + one on the table if he wants it?

"Look at D Bergkamp and R v persie, think the kid would be where he is (minus his prick) if he didnt have DB to guide him?"

I think you make a very good point but the difference between DB10 and RP7 is that DB10 wants to be here and RP7 is at a point in his career where he has 1 big contract left in him Luis Figo got two years at Inter (no fee) at 32 so what does Bob want? 2 more years at the Arsenal or 3 at Galatasary.